CE/CME

Prenatal Health: Screening and Intervention

Welcome to the training on Prenatal Health: Screening and Intervention provided by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).

Credit Hours: 1.00 CE

Log in to take this course

Please login or register to take this course.

  1. Prenatal Care: A Call to Action
    1. Why Prenatal Care Matters
    2. Elements of Prenatal Care and Screening
    3. Elements of a Comprehensive Prenatal Needs Assessment
    4. Section Summary
  2. Reducing Disparities in Health Outcomes and Improving Access to Health Care
    1. Trends in Access to Prenatal Care
    2. Assessing Nonmedical Drivers of Health
    3. Section Summary
  3. Managing Chronic Health Issues
    1. Improving Maternal Safety
    2. Chronic Health Conditions During Pregnancy - Obesity
    3. Chronic Health Conditions During Pregnancy - Hypertension
    4. Chronic Health Conditions During Pregnancy - Diabetes
    5. Additional Chronic Health Conditions During Pregnancy
    6. Section Summary
  4. Behavioral, Sexual and Oral Health During Pregnancy
    1. Behavioral Health: Ask About Mood During Pregnancy
    2. Maternal Mood and Anxiety Disorders
    3. Sexually Transmitted Infection
    4. Oral Health Care Is Safe and Important During Pregnancy
    5. Section Summary
  5. Addressing High-Risk Behaviors and Safety Concerns
    1. Routine Conversation-Based Substance Use Screening
    2. Substances of Concern
    3. Counsel About Nutrition, Weight Gain and Physical Activity in the First Trimester
    4. Intimate Partner Violence
    5. Distracted Driving and Lack of Seat Belt Use
    6. Section Summary

Appendix of Resources for Health Care Providers 

Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM). (2025). Patient Safety Bundles. 

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2025). Tailored Prenatal Care: Frequently Asked Questions.

Texas Department of State Health Services. (2025). Hear Her Texas. 

Texas Department of State Health Services. (2025). Disease Reporting.

Texas Department of State Health Services. Yes Quit, including the toll-free 877-937-7848 (877-Yes-Quit) Quit line, available 24/7. 

Texas Health and Human Services Commission. (2025). Case Management for Children & Pregnant Women.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission. (2025). Information for Prenatal and Dental Providers.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Find Your Local Mental Health or Behavioral Health Authority.

Texas Health Steps.(2025). Medical Checkup Periodicity Schedule for Infants, Children, and Adolescents.

Texas Medicaid & Healthcare Partnership (TMHP), Online Provider Search web page to locate Texas Health Steps dental providers in a specific geographic area.

References Featured in Course

Alexopoulos, A. S., Blair, R., & Peters, A. L. (2019). Management of Preexisting Diabetes in Pregnancy: A Review. JAMA, 321(18):1811-1819.

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2021). Clinical Report: Promoting Human Milk and Breastfeeding for the Very Low Birth Weight Infant. Pediatrics, 148(5): e2021054272.

American Academy of Pediatrics & American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2017). Guidelines for Perinatal Care (Eighth Edition). Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics. 

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2025). Car Safety for Pregnant Women, Babies, and Children.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2025). Implementing Perinatal Mental Health Screening. 

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2025). Perinatal Mental Health: Patient Screening.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2025). Clinical Consensus No. 8: Tailored Prenatal Care Delivery for Pregnant Individuals.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2017; reaffirmed 2025). Committee Opinion 710: Counseling Adolescents About Contraception. 

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2025). Perinatal Mental Health Tool Kit.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2021; reaffirmed 2024). Committee Opinion 825: Caring for Patients Who Have Experienced Trauma.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2021). Practice Bulletin 230: Obesity in Pregnancy.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2019; reaffirmed 2022). Committee Opinion 569: Oral Health Care During Pregnancy and Through the Lifespan.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2022). Practice Advisory: Low-Dose Aspirin Use for the Prevention of Preeclampsia and Related Morbidity and Mortality.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2022). Pregnancy and Heart Disease.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2021). Committee Opinion 711: Opioid Use and Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy.

American Diabetes Association. (2025). Diabetes Risk Calculator. 

American Society of Hematology. (2025). Anemia and Pregnancy.

American Thyroid Association. (2025). General Information/Press Room.

Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. (2021). Position Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 50(5): e1-e5.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). Health Effects of Cigarettes: Reproductive Health.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). Pregnancy and Vaccination.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). About Alcohol Use During Pregnancy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Clinical Guidance for STIs.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Clinical Overview of CMV and Congenital CMV.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Diabetes during Pregnancy. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Distracted Driving.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Let’s Talk about Alcohol SBI.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). National Overview of STIs in 2023.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Reproductive Health: Unintended Pregnancy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Hear Her.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy-Related Deaths — United States, 2007–2016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 68(35);762–765.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Diabetes During Pregnancy.

Duhig, K., Vandermolen, B., & Shennan, A. (2018). Recent advances in the diagnosis and management of pre-eclampsia. F1000Research, 7, 242. 

Edgoose, J., Quiogue, M., & Sidhar, K. (2019). How to Identify, Understand, and Unlearn Implicit Bias in Patient Care. Family Practice Management Journal.  26(4):29-33.

Harris, M., Schiff, D. M., Saia, K., Muftu, S., Standish, K. R., & Wachman, E. M. (2023). Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Clinical Protocol #21: Breastfeeding in the Setting of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorder (Revised 2023). Breastfeeding Medicine Vol. 18, No. 10.

Jack, A., Mullin, C., Brown, E., Burtner, M., Standish, K. R., Fields, A., … Hartman, S. (2024). Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Clinical Protocol #19: Breastfeeding Promotion in the Prenatal Period (Revised 2024). Breastfeeding Medicine Vol. 19, No. 8.

Lassi, Z. S., Majeed, A., Rashid, S., Yakoob, M. Y., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2013). The Interconnections Between Maternal and Newborn Health--Evidence and Implications for Policy. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine. 26 Suppl 1:3-53.

Le, Q. A., Eslick, G. D., Coulton, K. M., Akhter, R., Condous, G., Eberhard, J., & Nanan, R. (2021). Does Treatment of Gingivitis During Pregnancy Improve Pregnancy Outcomes? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Oral Health & Preventive Dentistry, 19(1):565-572.

MacDorman, M. F., Thoma, M., Declcerq, E., & Howell, E. A. (2021). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Maternal Mortality in the United States Using Enhanced Vital Records, 2016‒2017. American Journal of Public Health, 111: 1673-81.  

Magoon, V. (2022). Screening for Social Determinants of Health in Daily Practice. Family Practice Management 2022;29(2):6-11

March of Dimes. (2025). Beyond Labels.

March of Dimes Peristats. (2025). Obesity among women of childbearing age: Texas, 2012-2022.

March of Dimes Healthy Moms Strong Babies. (2025). Preexisting Diabetes.

National Child and Maternal Health Education Program. (2022). Moms’ Mental Health Matters.

Preeclampsia Foundation. Click “Store” on the upper right to order free educational illustrated signs and symptoms pads in English and Spanish to help patients understand the signs of preeclampsia.

Teichman, J., Nisenbaum, R., Lausman, A., & Sholzberg, M. (2021). Suboptimal iron deficiency screening in pregnancy and the impact of socioeconomic status in a high-resource setting. Blood Advances, 5(22): 4666–4673.

Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (2025). Perinatal Psychiatry Access Network (PeriPAN).

Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (2025). PeriPAN Mental Health Toolkit for Obstetric Clinicians.

Texas Collaborative for Healthy Mothers and Babies. (2024). TCHMB Statement of Commitment to Addressing and Combating the Effects of Racism on the Healthcare of the Women and Infants of Texas.

Texas Department of State Health Services. (2024). Congenital Syphilis in Texas.

Texas Department of State Health Services. (2025). Hear Her Texas. 

Texas Department of State Health Services. (2023). Texas Diabetes Council 2023 State Plan to Prevent and Treat Diabetes and Obesity.

Texas Department of State Health Services, Division for Community Health Improvement. (2023). 2022/2023 Healthy Texas Mothers and Babies Data Book.

Texas Department of State Health Services. (2025). Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee and Department of State Health Services Joint Biennial Report 2024.

Texas Health and Human Services. (2025). Healthy Texas Women.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Local Mental Health Authorities (LMHAs) and Local Behavioral Health Authorities (LBHAs) contact information.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Outreach, Screening, Assessment, and Referral Centers (OSARs).

Texas Health and Safety Code. Diagnostic Testing During Pregnancy and After Birth.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2023). SDOH & Practice Improvement: Tools to Help Healthcare Organizations Address SDOH.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. (2022). Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Maternal Health Care.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General. (2020). The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. (2023). Depression and Suicide Risk in Adults: Screening.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. (2020). Final Recommendation Statement, Sexually Transmitted Infections: Behavioral Counseling.

World Health Organization. (2025). Social Determinants of Health.

The medical definitions in this module were obtained or adapted from American Academy of Pediatrics, American Diabetes Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cleveland Clinic, Healthline, Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America, Journal of Women’s Health, March of Dimes, Mayo Clinic, Merck Manual, Merriam-Webster, Perception Institute, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Texas Family Code.